Exploring Los Angeles street dance culture. This is an experiment to share thoughts on this community which is rarely documented from a written perspective. Our intention is to share love for the culture and to further the dance.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

First Person POV: CSULB's Battle of the Sexes Contest 2009

Here's a new feature we're trying out. It's less of an event review and more of a series of impressions about happenings in the greater Los Angeles and southern California hip hop and street dance scene. We're kicking it off with a look back at the Battle of the Sexes bboy & bgirl contest held last Friday, October 16 over at the PE gymnasium at Cal State Long Beach. Home of the CSULB Breakers, this locale was a small-size contest with a great laidback feel.

Within a two-hour time frame, there were separate 1-on-1 bboy and 1-on-1 bgirl contest rounds followed by a final between the top bboy and bgirl. Props to the organizers for this great contest that made everyone feel comfortable despite the time limitations. Some of the best moments came from seeing the ladies of CSULB and South Bay scene get down and face off against each other. Also, for the bboys, it was awesome to see young bboy Steez (Jeff) get the crowd hyped up with his prelim round.

As time winded down, the rounds got compressed to where the top 8 bboys went against each other in a huge cypher. The top 8 bgirls did the same in their own round. You can imagine the chaos as everyone's trying to figure out who's going to go next, but of course the ones who want it the most will shine. Everyone in the room gathered around the huge circle as each contestant was going off. In the end, it was Tom from Instant Noodles vs Peppa from Syrenz Crew in the ultimate final battle of the sexes. They each went three rounds. Tom won. But anyone who saw their contest rounds will see the differences in approach for these two dancers. While Peppa favored her power moves by coming out and hitting them in her first round, Tom played well to the crowd with his style, transitions, and footwork. He repped his crew Instant Noodles in the best light as they've been gaining exposure in the bboy scene with their flavorful style.

Props to both Tom and Peppa for repping well in the final contest rounds. The LA and soCal scene can definitely benefit from more small-size contests like Battle of the Sexes, which is more about dancing with friends and community rather than high-ticket prices or judging politics. Hopefully, we'll see more in the future from Instant Noodles, Syrenz, and the rest of the dancers competing that night.